In the real world: Burger King is not allowed to enter a McDonalds property and plaster their ads all over the place!
But what about AR? Let's assume there is a really popular AR app and it supports placing ads in certain spaces. Would BK allowed to place virtual ads on real-world McDonalds property? Or would McDonalds have grounds for suing because their real-world property extends into AR?
The only entity that has jurisdiction over that particular digital space is the app itself, so they get to make the rules.
I think this notion, one I identify as an issue of semiotics as much as a technical challenge, is a huge problem / business opportunity. I did a bit of a deep dive on the topic in '15 in this Medium post: https://medium.com/@doctorhandshake/the-map-and-the-territor... ... been meaning to post to HN and never to got it ... will have to do that now.
A little disappointed in KK because I sent him this article in '16, and, despite that he didn't respond, he did crib a number of my points for this piece, as well as the Borges allusion.
In your specific example, McDonalds might have both copyright and trademark, or even the publicity claims - design of the restaurant, arches and the recognizable nature of the brand all are very unique. Placing BK logos over them would be valuable because it’s McDonalds.
Should the neighbor have any rights over their virtual AR property?
The way I hope to see it is that all the different features are apps that you can either enable or disable and then the AR platform (e.g. the OS on your headset) just mixes them all together. So for example there could be an app for placing sculptures anywhere and it becomes a matter of that apps policy. If you don't like an app that lets you place sculptures anywhere just don't install it and use the one that ties in with property register. And so on.
This would also reduce the BK Ads in MCDs example to what we have today. It's not illegal to show BK Ads on peoples phones while they are in MCDs.
I think what allows "winner" apps to exist in modern world is that you can really use only one app at the time. Especially true for Smartphones. The way I hope AR to develop is that all of the small components (the apps) get composited together OS level. So that "winner" platform would be the OS itself.
Albeit, I'm being extremely optimistic here.
Maps: I use a few apps whose sole purpose is to provide location-based info (eg we have a govt app that gives fuel prices). This could just be a plugin layer that could be enabled in the Maps app. Property searches, your favourite fast food place, etc.
Camera: plugins could provide more effects or manual camera settings control UI, or indeed... AR overlays.
Or the situation where you (with or without attribution) cause a virtual sign saying 'idiot' to appear over their head when they are in a public place?
Looks like google has started regulating this just from a quick look. I’d expect winners in the AR space to follow a similar trajectory, coming up with rules for this when it becomes a problem.
Should be the same thing, no?